Gaza families demand answers on 11,200 missing Palestinians

Palestinian families gathered outside the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Gaza City on Sunday demanding information about thousands of people unaccounted for since Israel launched its war on the enclave in October 2023. The protest coincided with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, observed annually on Aug. 30. Palestinian authorities say more than 11,200 people remain missing or unaccounted for, including those believed buried beneath rubble, people who disappeared during Israeli military operations or displacement, and an unknown number believed held in Israeli detention.

'We don't know whether he's alive or dead'

Among the protesters was the mother of Mahmoud Bassem Matar, a 25-year-old with psychological disorders who requires special care and vanished on March 12 after leaving home during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Now displaced in the Nuseirat refugee camp, she told Anadolu that relatives searched hospitals, missing person organizations, and the Red Cross without learning anything about his fate. "We don't know whether he's alive or dead," she said. "I just want one piece of information about Mahmoud." Reem Abu Khuwaid said Israeli forces detained her husband and two sons during a December 2023 incursion into Gaza City. "Where are my sons and my husband?" she said. "This is the cry I am sending from the depths of my heart."

NGOs accuse Israel of withholding information

Mohammed Saleha, general coordinator of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said more than 11,200 Palestinians in Gaza remain missing, with some under the rubble and others in Israeli prisons. He said Palestinian authorities do not know how many are being held in Israeli detention and accused Israel of withholding information about their whereabouts. "Their families have the right to know their fate and where they are," he said, urging the ICRC, UN, and other international bodies to press Israel for information. The Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons estimated Saturday that between 2,500 and 3,000 people may have been subjected to enforced disappearance during the war.

The Palestinian Justice Ministry puts the overall number of missing or forcibly disappeared Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023 at more than 11,200, including over 4,700 women and children. The figure encompasses people believed buried under rubble, those who vanished during military operations or displacement, and people suspected of being detained without their families being informed of their whereabouts. As many as 1,313 Palestinians have been killed and 4,361 injured in Israeli violations since a ceasefire that was signed last October, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which said Israel's war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed at least 73,449 people and injured 174,472.